A place to ramble and maybe make some sense about a thing or two.

Archive for the category “Movie”

O.M.G, people!! What is up with all the 50 Shades crap? I’ve seen people going on-and-on about how awful it is, how wonderful it is, how freeing it is, how humiliating it is, etc. ad nauseum. Some are trying to put together secret viewing groups so that they and their friends can go see the movie but not be recognized by *gasp!* someone who’s opinion of them matters more than any enjoyment or disgusting feelings they’ll get from admitting they actually went to see it or read the books. Then there are those who are shouting from the mountaintops that the movie is a glorification of abuse and such sin that no one has seen in millennia and basically that they and the generations of children that follow them will all be permanently scarred. Every now and then, I see a post or an article from someone who just wants to have fun and watch a mindless movie without being judged.

Here’s my take on this (just in case you were wondering). There’s a fabulous line in the movie Sunset Boulevard that states “It’s fun to see just how bad bad writing can be.” It was with that in mind that last year I read the 50 Shades series. “Bad” is putting it mildly. Not “bad” as in evil, disgusting, sinful, whatever you define it. It’s “bad” as in the author has no real concept of how to complete proper sentence structure and people like me would find themselves more concerned over correcting grammar than being able to “get into” a story line. And if you’re looking for a plot you’re definitely in the wrong place. Yes, there is a storyline to follow, but no real depth or intrigue to keep a reader from putting the book down or, say, start a bonfire with it. I have the electronic versions so the fire was, unfortunately, out of the question without losing a nice piece of technology.

As for the movie, I’ll probably watch it sometime. Like when it comes on one of the streaming services where I don’t have to pay for it. Because bad writing should only have to be paid for once. And I think that’s something people are forgetting about the movie — many of the sales of the books were because someone heard someone else talk about it or they were just curious and bought it. The huge numbers of sales does not necessarily mean that everyone who bought it liked it. Large sales doesn’t not actually mean success. And the actors in the movie probably never read the books before auditioning. Why? Because they don’t have time and need a job. When you’re always looking for work, sometimes it doesn’t matter what you’re doing — it’s a paycheck and a way to advance your career. You’d rather be doing that than living hand-to-mouth for another year hoping you can become “Oh no, we can’t afford cable” broke instead of “Oh no, we can’t afford food” broke.

Plus, it’s an R-rated movie, not NC-17 or AO or X or any of the other “horrible” ratings. If you’re willing to see an R-rated horror movie, sci-fi, drama, or comedy then what’s the difference? Just because the characters in the book do WAY more than you’d be able to see in an R-rated movie doesn’t mean I’ll go blind from seeing it. Guess what? There’s still pornographic movies being made! Real ones! Yeah! And don’t act like that’s an alien concept — I’ve personally found the people who usually vehemently deny EVER watching an X-rated movie or reading a nudie magazine are the ones who own more of them than anyone else in the room. If I was looking for something to titillate or scandalize myself or my friends, the Internet and adult book/video stores are filled with more examples than you can imagine. And if you can imagine it, it’s probably already on video.

This isn’t a slam against those who feel that they shouldn’t watch the movie or read the books because of their religious background, moral leanings, or anything else. It is, however, more of a “please-quit-telling-people-how-to-live-their-lives” posting. If I’m over 21 (or 18 in areas where that’s the age of majority) I can make my own decisions. Yes, I respect your opinions just so long as you respect mine. No amount of bashing people upside the head with fears that the whole world will come to an end if some guy gets a minor erection or a woman begins to fantasize about being blindfolded by her lover during the showing of this movie is going to really change any minds. And, yes, I know there’s more than that in the books. Remember, I actually read them. And I’m still here. And nothing has changed.

So, if you want to see the movie, go see it. If you don’t, then don’t. How much simpler can it be?

That’s really all that needs to be said. I never finished the book. I did see the play when I was in London. A friend of mine sent me a copy of the radio show. Now I’ve finally gotten around to seeing the movie and I loved it.

Daniel Radcliffe was very good. He’s always had that haunted look in his eyes, even in his first production. He played the lead as young David Copperfield in BBC One’s television movie. I’ve seen him in that, My Boy Jack, The December Boys, and of course the Harry Potter series. He’s also been on Broadway and in the West End. I was worried they’d try to take this ghost/horror story and try to “jazz” it up by getting the young Radcliffe so a younger audience would attend. And when I saw that it was rated PG-13, I really feared the producers would try to play to a much younger audience (okay, specifically, teenage girls with a crush on “The Chosen One”).

They didn’t. The movie does not disappoint. Even Husband jumped a few times during it.

If I have to rate the productions I’ve seen/experienced, I still have to give the play top honors. In the play, there are only two men onstage and in the program’s notes. They never say that there’s a female who also appears and you never know if/when she’ll show up. The skin-crawling creepiness of the play was excellent. I would have to place the movie and the radio play as a tie because with the radio play you still use your imagination and can be genuinely scared. With the movie, you get the great visuals and an expanded cast that helps make it more dramatic.

So, there it is. Didn’t see anything worth watching on television so I figured I’d see the movie on Blu-Ray. Now I’m watching Waiting for Guffman. Yeah….I have weird tastes.

You know the 7 Ps Rule, right? If you were in the military, I’m fairly certain that you’ve heard it multiple times. If you teach school, you most likely had to memorize it during your Master’s degree classes (except they usually did the 6 Ps to omit the one “questionable” word). And if you ever need to remember how to prepare for something, it’s one of the best rules to keep in mind.

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

Yes, I know there are manydifferent variants on this mnemonic device. But, this is the one I learned first both from sitting through graduate-level courses when my parents were getting their Master’s/Specialist’s in Education degrees and by having military members in my family. Over the years, it’s served me well.

However, today Youngest Son needs to add the word “Patience.” More grammatically correct, it should be “Patient” as in “Patient Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance” (deleted the objectionable word since he’s still not allowed to swear). In a few weeks he’ll be celebrating his birthday and we’ve agreed to allow him to invite over his closest friends for a pizza party and then for them to go to the movies that evening. The female guests will have to be picked up by their parents after the movie while the male guests can come to our house for a sleepover. He’s been texting all of his friends today and bugging me for specific details, such as start time, menu, etc.

He’s forgotten that his father and I have not finalized any plans. He’s also forgotten that he’s still grounded at the moment and if he doesn’t earn his privileges back in time there won’t be a birthday party. His friends are all trying to arrange their schedules and make suggestions for things to do and ingredients for the pizzas but we don’t have anything confirmed at the moment. Big shock for him and his buddies if it’s all for nothing!

I admire his desire to be sure to plan early enough in advance so that all of his friends have the opportunity to check with their parents/families to ensure if they’d be able to attend. I’m just not happy that he’s getting their expectations up for something that may or may not happen. Plus, the parents also won’t be very happy if they change their schedules around to accommodate something that isn’t happening.

Oh well. Not much I can do about it at the moment. I told him to be sure to let everyone know that nothing has been confirmed yet and that he’s just checking to see if they would be able to attend. That way, we can also plan for how much food and how many tickets we’ll need to buy.

Got a chance to sleep-in a bit this morning. Mostly because I forgot to set my alarm and Celeste realized I was sleeping soundly and didn’t want to wake me. Sadly, that made me late for taking my medication. Oh, it wasn’t so late that it made me ill or have a bad reaction — it just meant that the time I would be zonked-out because of the side-effects would be much later in the morning and could have screwed up my schedule for the day.

But then I remembered, I didn’t have a schedule for today. Laundry was done by Husband (THANK YOU!) and the dogs and cat were watered and fed this morning by Youngest Son.

So, what have I done today? Sadly, I’ve sat and watched a marathon of The Pink Panther, Return of the Pink Panther, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. If I wanted to, I could switch the channel at the moment and watch A Shot in the Dark — the funniest of all of the “Pink Panther/Inspector Clouseau” movies. Actually, my favorite characters are Cato and Inspector Dreyfus. Burt Kwuok was hysterical and Herbert Lom perfected the nervous tic that showed just how insane Clouseau made Dreyfus.

I remember watching the early “Pink Panther” movies on television (since I wasn’t born when they were made) but the later ones I remember going to see in the theater. Of course, as a kid, I thought the slapstick was hysterical. Now that I’m much older, the same things don’t make me laugh but I still get a big chuckle out of the jokes I didn’t understand years ago.

Classic movies are the ones that can stand the test of time. I worry, though, that these classics will soon be removed from the “classic bin” because many people today would not get the jokes and/or cultural/current event references made in them.

No new news on the job front. My Cadre Manager was supposed to get back in touch with my ERO counselor but that didn’t happen. I have been given lots of really good advice and had friends recommend a lot of options. I’m keeping everything open at the moment. I’ll continue fighting for what’s best for my family and me.

So, since there’s really nothing new, I’ll just wish everyone a Happy Towel Day and Happy Star Wars Day. Towel Day is for fans of Douglas Adams and his “Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy” (all six books) and in memory of his death on this date in 2001. Star Wars Day marks the anniversary of the premiere of Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope in 1977. 35 years ago….wow, I feel old.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read Douglas’ books (not just the H2G2 series) as well as listened to the radio shows, audiobooks, and watched the movies. Douglas Adams also worked on episodes of Doctor Who and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. You can tell I’m a big fan, huh?

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen the original trilogy of Star Wars. I even have the theatrical releases on DVD because I can’t stand watching all of the added on stuff from 1997. I remember seeing the movies in the theater, when that was the only option, and then recording them off HBO onto our Betamax player (yes, I really am that old) and watching them every day after school.

Hey, when your dad is the principal of your school, you don’t hang out with a lot of people, and you’re focused on keeping your grades high you find yourself as one of the biggest geeks doing what geeks do best — reciting movie lines. After I’d seen each of the original three over 500 times each, I quit counting. I still have no idea how many times I’ve seen them all. In college I could win bets by having people play a part of the soundtrack and begin to act and recite the exact scene just based on the music! Okay, it was only good for winning bar bets and has never helped me in any sort of career, but it was fun all the same!

So all you hoopy froods, get your towels and grab a bottle of Old Janx Spirit (from H2G2 or SW, your choice) and head out to Millyways!

Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all. — Douglas Adams

Just returned home from finally being able to see The Avengers. Really enjoyed it, even more than I thought I would. A lot of the “inside” jokes and the two scenes during the credits were very good. Saw the movie in 3D but it really didn’t seem to make a difference. Of course, with my poor vision, I’m not surprised.

Now I’m debating with Husband and Youngest Son about what to watch on television tonight. HBO is premiering Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 tonight. I have them all on DVDs and Blu-Ray, but I still love watching the movies (and reading the books).

In honor of the premiere, HBO is showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1followed by Part 2 as a sort of “mini-marathon.” HBO East is currently showing Part 2 (and I’m watching it as I write) but Youngest Son also wants to watch both which will start in about 20 minutes on HBO West. Husband doesn’t want to watch Part 1 but I think he’s been outvoted on this adventure.

And I still think Warner Brothers and J.K. Rowling missed the boat when these movies could have been shown back-to-back in the theaters during the release of the 2nd part. I can do 2 in a row, but if they ever try to show all 8, they’ll need to provide lots of caffeine and blankets for naps.

Why is it when Youngest Son has a friend or friends over to spend the night I’m the one completely exhausted the next day? It’s not like I’m up watching movies at 2:30 a.m. or trying to finish the last slices of the jalapeno pizza they ordered on a whim!

Fortunately, Youngest Son’s friend (to whom he was going to introduce the game Warhammer 40K) enjoyed it very much. I loaned him some of my army since he wants to play the same one I have and he picked up the rules very quickly. They played for over 3 hours and then started another game this morning. We all then went out-of-town to the closest gaming store and Youngest Son’s friend had left-over birthday money that he used to purchase some figures so he can start his own army. We even bought him a really cool figure that was already put together and painted that he saw and liked (and it wasn’t too expensive) and gave it to him as a belated birthday gift. After having lunch and a running a few more errands, we came back to the house and Youngest Son began teaching his friend how to assemble the figures. They got two done in the short time they had left and they’re both looking forward to the time after school gets out for the summer when they can spend more time together assembling, painting, and playing with the figures and ships for their respective armies. I’m very, very thankful Youngest Son has friends here. We were worried that it would be hard for him to make friends since we’re “not from ’round here” but he’s fitting in with a pretty good group.

Well, this is going to be short ’cause in an hour Syfy is going to be showing the new “Treasure Island” with Eddie Izzard, Elijah Wood and Donald Sutherland. DEFINITELY want to see it!!

I hate it when I wake up to crummy weather. I hate it even more when from out of nowhere I have a sore throat, horrible headache, and crummy weather. Add a low-grade fever and you’ve got a great snapshot of me today.

I do have to give a big “THANK YOU!” to Husband and Youngest Son for straightening up the house and running errands while I was in my medically-induced semi-coma this morning. Husband and I thought we could stay up late on Friday night like we did when we were younger while Youngest Son was at his friend’s sleepover. Both of us are feeling the ill effects of trying to be “young” again today. And, yes, the evil couch has been taking its turns on the guys — each of them having a moment or two to drift off to sleep. I’ve been staying on the loveseat but the curse is beginning to spread.

Anyway, EPIX is showing Iron Man 2 at the moment. It will be followed by Thor (which Youngest Son hasn’t seen yet) and then the evening will be capped-off by Captain America. Yes, we’re getting our Avengers prepping done tonight.

So, back to the living room and my attempts at keeping my own personal global warming in check. It’s not terribly warm or humid but I feel like I’m in a sauna. Iced tea, anyone?

Yes, yes, yes….I know it’s the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. I would have known that without all of the televised fanfare and the re-release of James Cameron’s movie in 3D. You know how I would have known that? Because I read! Because I studied in history class! Because my life isn’t so shallow that I only believe things shown to me on Twitter or Facebook as so many people over the past week have shown in their posts that they didn’t know the movie “Titanic” (1997) was based on an actual historical event!

And I make sure to put the year 1997 behind the title of the movie because, yes, there is more than one movie named “Titanic.” In 1943 the Third Reich attempted to make a propaganda film espousing the positive reasons to invade Britain by using the Titanic disaster as the backstory. “Titanic” (1943) showed Bruce Ismay, owner of the White Star Line, as an evil capitalist and all of the British as greedy while a lone German crew member who seemed to know that something bad was going to happen tried to warn everyone but was ignored. This German officer was later the hero of the movie — even though “Titanic” (1943) never played in Germany until the 1950s. It was deemed too controversial because of the passengers in Second and Third Class areas trying to scramble for safety and being locked-out or denied passage was too reminiscent of the Holocaust. With Germany beginning to lose the war, no one in the Third Reich wanted anyone to recognize similar goings-on happening in Germany and other occupied areas where concentration camps were in operation. A lot of that type of footage was removed before the movie ever played in Germany.

But “Titanic” (1943) wasn’t completely lost to history. There were many scenes of the ship and people running to the lifeboats that came from “Titanic” (1943) and were used in “A Night to Remember” (1958). “A Night to Remember” was considered one of the most accurate depictions of the sinking of the Titanic because a lot of the information used to write the movie came from interviews with survivors in the book by the same name. It was the most accurate at that time because it did not show the Titanic breaking apart because no one had ever confirmed it and there were different memories of what exactly happened that night.

Not until Robert Ballard discovered the RMS Titanic on the ocean floor in 1985 was it confirmed that the ship had broken apart before it sank. After his discovery, more movies were made. “Titanica” (1995), narrated by Leonard Nimoy, was shown in IMAX theatres. “Titanic” (1996), a two-part miniseries, was made for television and got a lot of facts wrong but somehow still pulled out an Emmy win.

Finally in 1997 the world was “graced” (and I use that term sarcastically here) with James Cameron’s version which was fictional but based on historical fact and recent discovery. Even now he has said that there are parts he got wrong but he’s not going back to fix them all because “when would you know where to stop?” And Celine Dion’s song and chest-thumping visage on every awards show and commercial hawking “authentic Titanic reproductions” became embedded in everyone’s subconscious. And I do apologize to all of my readers who are now tortured with it running through their heads at the moment — I feel your pain ’cause it’s stuck in mine, too.

By the way, those “authentic Titanic reproductions” were usually of the blue diamond necklace Rose (not a real person on the RMS Titanic) wore while in the nude being sketched by Jack (another non-real person on the RMS Titanic). The necklace never existed. Actually, there is historical reference to a blue sapphire necklace similar to the one depicted in the movie, but it would have only been an inspiration for the one in the movie. And, sadly, I’ve been seeing more and more replicas of the necklace, the gemstone, etc. being advertised late at night in “honor” of the 100th anniversary of the sinking.

The latest incantation of the story is “Titanic” (2012) and is a four-part television drama based on the sinking. As if we needed another re-telling of the story.

And movies weren’t the only things created about the RMS Titanic! Even if you don’t count all of the books and memoirs written or related by survivors and their relatives, along with historical accounts and fictional dramatizations, there’s still tons of stuff out there! In 1997 there was a Broadway musical about the sinking — and it WON five Tony Awards!!

So, now that you’ve had your history lesson for today, can we please stop all the hoopla?

Don’t get me wrong, though. It was an important event in history. Seafaring changed forever after the RMS Titanic sank and the International Ice Patrol was created from this disaster. Also, there now has to be 24-hour monitoring of communications channels, something that had the Marconi operators on the Californian not gone to bed, they would have received the Titanic’s distress signal and been able to render assistance. And there are many who spent the last moments of their lives doing their jobs in the belly of the ship in order to keep it level and keep the lights on in order to help others escape, even though they knew they would be no way out for them.

Yes, remember and honor the memories of those who perished, etc., etc., etc. But now that the official time and date of the sinking 100 years ago has passed, can I please stop being bashed about the head with shows, movies, posts, and documentaries about it all? Just for a little while??